History is the study of how the world we live in now has been shaped by the events ofthe past. It is a record of human experiences relative to the society in which we live. Ourlives as members of western civilization, have been formed by outstanding institutions,ideas, and creative works. Without the knowledge of our past we would have littledirection in our society, we can not learn from past mistakes and successes, to put itbluntly, we learn the past to predict the future.The majority of the knowledge we gain by studying history is of the political,economic, and social record of our past. We learn the reasons why certain governmentssucceeded and others failed by studying our political record. Issues such as trade andcommerce have existed since the origin of civilization and by studying our economicrecord we may learn the solutions to any problems we may come across today. Theseaspects are too closely related to ever be mentioned in isolation.Although closely associated with the previous two, one aspect of history which effectsevery human being on the planet is our social record. Every culture's traditions havemade some contribution to the society we live in, the art and music of the past have suchobvious descendants in everyday life, especially in the United States, that one can't helpbut thinking that people in the past weren't that different than people today.One of the most important reasons for studying our history is simple self-preservation.Without certain skills passed down from generation-to-generation, human survival wouldbe extremely difficult. Skills such as linguistic communication and cartography, are keyto are survival. Maps are a clear record of history, a simple map can show how peoplehave migrated from various regions across the globe or how certain religions andgovernments prospered in particular regions. Although effective, a map is just oneexample of the physical manifestation of history in our world.As for the subject of world history, I feel it is Important that we learn as much as wecan about other cultures and their history, doing so, we as citizens of the United States,can better understand where some of the influences in our clothes, music, and food,originated. We live in a nation that is made possible by the past successes of many socialgroups. Our form of government, religious beliefs, and scientific knowledge, all havetheir origin in European history. As well, many of the problems we face now have at onepoint occurred in some society at one time or another, by studying the past we can alsolearn when problems without recent precedent occur.
